Good day, everyone and welcome to the Golfsmith International Holdings Inc. First Quarter Fiscal 2012 Earnings Conference Call. Today’s call is being recorded. For opening remarks and introduction, I would like to turn the call over to Jean Fontana of ICR. Please go ahead, ma’am.

Jean Fontana

Thank you. Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss Golfsmith International Inc. first quarter 2012 earnings results. As a reminder, our presentation includes, and responses to various questions may include, forward-looking statements about the company’s financial results and about future plans and objectives.

Any such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause the actual results to vary materially. These risks are discussed in the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC. We issued a press release this afternoon. If you have not received a copy, you can find it on our website or by calling Investor Relations at 203-682-8200.

Presenting on the call today, we have Golfsmith’s Chairman and CEO, Martin Hanaka as well as President, Chief Financial Officer and Operating Officer, Sue Gove.

With that I’ll turn the call over to Marty.

Martin E. Hanaka

Thank you, Jean good morning all. If you permit Sue and I would like first to go over the first quarter results after which time I will comment at a high level regarding yesterday’s acquisition release and then we will take all your questions. I will start with a quarter overview to be followed again by Sue’s operating synopsis.

First, the top line was very solid throughout the quarter February was better than January and March is better than February overall 8.5% comps so our core business is very strong. Again it strengthen throughout the quarter and if you looked at it, it was a combination of factors and across all geographies traffic was up mid single digits, AOV was up mid single digits, conversion wise IPT was up slightly, so all these key metrics are all going in the same direction.

The environment was very positive mother-nature gave us a nice boost certainly in the Northeast and the Midwest had a very nice impact. And as a result of the weather rounds played were up significantly across the whole industry and that’s in an environment where golfers are down. Since I started getting involved with Golfsmith, the amount of golfers in the U.S. has dropped from $29 million to $25.7 million. So the weather and rounds played made for a nice environment for us to do business in Q1 ’12.

As well competition is decreased there is 929 doors at the start of this year versus 1,574 doors in 2007. Last year there were 142 net closing so amounted 16% year-over-year. So the overall competitive environment has eased and has made life easier for us as a result. As a result of that our market shares are up, we are up over 5% in dollars for the first quarter and up 11% in units versus the industry and the 8 key categories to GOLF data tech tracks.

So the overall results, I think reflect some loose ends that we cleaned up and is particularly as we move into growth you will see a lot of investment in pre-opening. We’re opening 10 new stores and relocating four as you know, and our D-to-C number reflects the number of system bumps and some operating practice changes, but we’re back on track in May. Those are kind of a high level overview and now Sue will talk about the numbers. Sue.

Sue E. Gove

Okay. Thank you, Martin. Good morning everyone. For the first quarter of fiscal 2012, net revenues increased 11% to $90.5 million compared to $81.5 million in the first quarter of last year. Sales were driven primarily by the five new store openings since the end of the first quarter of last year, as well as the comparable store increase at 8.5% partially offset by a 4.7% decrease in net revenues from the direct-to-consumer channel.

We saw sales improve with more favorable weather conditions and we benefited from targeted marketing initiative as well as strong store openings. Our average transaction grew 4%, reflecting the improvement we made to our merchandize assortment, our continued focus on improving our selling culture, with key metrics.

Gross profit increased 10.5% to $30.3 million compared to $27.4 million in the first quarter of last year. Gross margin was 33.5% as compared to 33.6% for the same period last year. This 10 basis point decline in gross margin was primarily due to decline in merchandize margins with a sales mix shift towards lower margin product compared to last year as well as the impact of major clearance on apparels, which were launched immediately following the holiday shopping season.

SG&A expense increased to $33.6 million in the first quarter, compared to $30.5 million in the same quarter last year. As a percentage of net revenue SG&A was 37.2% in the current quarter compared to 37.4% in the prior year. The increase in dollars relates primarily to the five new store openings, three of which opened in the current fiscal year. Two store relocation’s and an increase in credit card fees driven by increases in sales over the prior year.